Session 13: Archaeological Translation, Cyrus the Great's Cylinder

Over the past several decades in Iran there has been a renewed interest in ancient Persia, particularly in the most glorious and innovative period: the Achaemenid dynasty (550-330 BC. J.-C). From this vast empire that stretched across the Iranian plateau only vestiges remain, including a set of cuneiform inscriptions engraved on rock walls or on the monuments of that time. Written simultaneously in several languages (Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian), these inscriptions have attracted the attention of European diplomats and later archaeologist-translators and have piqued the curiosity of European philologists since the eighteenth century and, most notably, in the nineteenth century.

Until recently, they remained obscure to Iranians, the heirs of this brilliant Persian Empire. Since the 1970s, at the instigation of the last Shah of Iran, these inscriptions began to be systematically translated into modern Persian. In recent years, private publishers have brought out an abundance of books on the Achaemenid, most of the latter having originally been written and published in Europe.

One of the most controversial inscriptions is Cyrus ‘Cylinder, known as the Human Being Chart. Today we have many translations of this Cylinder to different languages (Europeans and Persian). Therefore, first of all, we have to answer the questions like: Who is Cyrus the Great? What is the content of the Cylinder? How important is this inscription? And what is the role of this translation in our identity? In this research, I resort to National Library and Archives of IR of Iran to show that these translations (especially the Persian ones) fulfill a function of identity and political power by supporting the nationalist and reformist movement against the theocratic regime that attempts to conceal Iran’s pre-Islamic past.

Nazila Khalkhali
Master of Translation Studies
University of Ottawa

Time: Thursday, December 8 · 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Location: SITE 5084, University of Ottawa
Language: Persian · Admission: Free

Useful Links: in Encyclopædia Iranica · at The British Museum · Persian Translation
Picture: The Cyrus Cylinder, obverse and reverse sides © wikipedia

UPDATE:


Slides HERE